"He that hath a trade hath an estate; and he that hath a calling hath a place of profit and honor" - Benjamin Franklin

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Listen To Your Elders

From an interview with George Foreman in the AARP Bulletin:

Q: What was the best thing about turning 65 earlier this year?

A: It's strange. I was in the hospital with a back operation. What's that thing - Medicare? Man, I didn't have to pay for anything! [But] you have to live to see it. Sixty-five? It's like gold sprinkling from the sky.

Q: How did you celebrate?

A: I only had to blow out one little candle. Deep breath - boom! There it went. All of the kids came over. I have 10 grandkids, including two great-grandkids. Make that 11 - they snuck one in on me. You watch them crawl around the floor, tryin' to talk, behavin' and misbehavin'. Then I realized I only could have seen this had I made 65.

From an interview with Neil Young (68) in The Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Young says that he plans to spend the rest of his life trying to fight climate change - and having a good time. "I'm enjoying life and trying to emulate the joy I see in the animals - the frolicking birds and dogs running around playing," he says. "I think why we were put here on Earth is to have a good time and to love one another."

To do that, Mr. Young says he is going to spend more time with people whom he makes happy and who in turn make him happy. "I just made up my mind that that's what I'm going to do because it works," he says. "Happiness is the valuable commodity, and that's what makes life good."

Take care of yourself so you too can have gold sprinkling down on you from the sky in your later years and surround yourself with people who make you happy. Damn solid advice. So let's get out there and frolic!

2 comments:

I highly recommend Neil Young's latest memoir of his life with cars, "Special Deluxe". His earlier memoir, "Waging Heavy Peace" is a good one to, but the latest focuses on the cars, as well as his LincVolt project machine. Good stuff.

I knew he was into cars but I had never heard of his LincVolt project until it was mentioned in the interview I read. I'll have to see if the library has the book. I saw him once in concert - he puts on a good show.